Advancing Medicine with Lipid-Based Nanosystems—The Successful Case of Liposomes
Hugo Luiz, Jacinta O. Pinho, Maria Manuela Gaspar
Abstract
Nanomedicine, a promising area of medicine, employs nanosized tools for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease. Particularly, liposomes, lipid-based nanovesicles, are currently one of the most successful nanosystems, with extensive applications in the clinic and an increasing pipeline of products in preclinical and clinical development. These versatile nanotechnological tools are biocompatible and biodegradable, and can load a variety of molecules and, ultimately, improve the therapeutic performance of drugs while minimizing undesired side effects. In this review, we provide a brief description on liposomes' composition and classification and mainly focus on their clinical use in various areas, including disease management (e.g., cancer, fungal and bacterial infections, ocular pathologies), analgesia, vaccination, diagnostics, and immunosuppression in organ transplantation. Herein are described examples of current liposomal products already in the clinic, as well as the most recent clinical trials involving liposomes as effective and safe nanomedicine tools.